


I Died. Duh!

by Cattie_V



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Gen, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-15
Updated: 2019-10-15
Packaged: 2020-12-16 14:00:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,228
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21037361
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cattie_V/pseuds/Cattie_V
Summary: Under pressure from his brothers, Klaus reveals just how he was able to talk to their dad.





	I Died. Duh!

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this a few months ago and only posted it only tumbr, but now I thought I'd post it here as well. This is also my first work posted to this site, so yay!

“I need you to talk to Dad again.” 

Klaus looked up from where he sat on the floor, playing cards with Diego. He had lately taken to doing a great many different things into order to distract himself. He had been sober for almost a month now and needed distractions to keep it that way. 

Five stood in the door way, looking down at his brothers, a determined look on his face. When Klaus didn’t answer, Diego asked. “What for?”

“I need to know how he knew about the apocalypse.”

“Not this again,” Diego groaned. “We stopped the apocalypse. It’s over, Five. The world is safe.”

“Maybe, maybe not. We may have stopped it this time, but who’s to say it won’t happen again?”

Diego sighed and looked back at Klaus. “You know he’s going to keep asking, right? You might as well just get it over with.”

Klaus shook his head, refusing to meet either of his brothers’ eyes, focusing instead on his cards. “No can do.”

“Come on, Klaus. This is important. Your little game can wait,” Five insisted.

“I didn’t say I didn’t want to. I said I can’t.” Klaus looked around the room, hoping to make a quick getaway. This conversation was making him uncomfortable. Ben was watching them and he shook his head when he saw Klaus looking at him. 

“You’re going to have to tell them sooner or later,” Ben told him at the same time as Five said, “What do you mean you can’t?”

“Just that!” said Klaus. “I cannot conjure Dad. I still haven’t been able to summon him. Or Dave,” he added, sadly.

“But you conjured him before!” said Diego. “When he told you killed himself.”

“I didn’t summon him, then. I just…I just talked to him.”

Five and Diego exchanged confused looks. “How did you talk to him if you didn’t summon his ghost?” Five asked. 

“Is it lunch time?” asked Klaus, dropping his cards and getting to his feet. “Cause I’m hungry. Aren’t you hungry?” He turned to leave, but Five stepped in front of him just as Diego stood. 

“Klaus. Explain,” said Diego. “How did you talk to Dad without conjuring him?”

“Tell them, Klaus,” said Ben.

“I…I’m really hungry,” Klaus tried to step around Five, but Diego blocked him too.

“Tell them!” Ben repeated.

“No!” Klaus shouted at him.  
“Tell them, Klaus! They need to know!”

“No! I don’t have to tell them!”

“Tell us what?” Five and Diego demanded together.  
“Tell them, Klaus. They’re going to keep asking.”

Klaus sighed and threw up his hands in defeat before turning back and sinking down onto the couch. “I talked to Dad in the afterlife. Happy?”

Five and Diego stared at him, clearly stunned. After several moments of silence, Diego asked, “You can travel to the afterlife now?”

Klaus couldn’t help it. He laughed. 

“What’s so funny?” Five asked. “He asked you a perfectly legitimate question.”

“If I could I travel to the afterlife to talk to the dead, why would I bother trying to summon them here?” Klaus asked, still shaking with mirth.

“So then how…?” Five and Diego exchanged looks.

“I died. Duh!” 

“You…died…” Deigo repeated slowly as the words began to sink it. Five’s eyes widened as Diego finally understood what Klaus had just said. “You died!?”

“Only for a few minutes,” Klaus shrugged.

“But you actually died,” said Five as Diego just stared at Klaus in shock. “As in your brain stopped functioning, your heart stopped beating, you stopped breathing?”

“I guess,” Klaus shrugged again.

“Start talking, Klaus,” Diego growled. “I want to know how this happened.”

“Do I have to?” Klaus whined.

“Yes!” Five and Diego answered together, unaware that Ben had also answered.

“Fine. Luther was feeling down because he just found out that Dad had sent him to the moon for four years for no apparent reason. He said he wanted to be like me. Numb. I told him he didn’t want that, but he insisted he did. I tried to stop him but he took off. Ben and I went looking for him. We found him at a rave.”

Diego felt sick. A rave. He could picture where this was going. Klaus was newly sober at the time and Luther had led him to the last place a newly sober individual should go. Too much temptation to fall back into bad habits. Diego looked over at Five and saw that by his expression, Five also understood what must have happened.

“You used, didn’t you?”

“I…I don’t remember, but I think so.”

“And you overdosed?”

“I guess.”

“I a-aa---am g-g—going to k-k-k-ill L-L-Lu-Luther!” Diego swore, his hands shaking.

“Hold off on that,” said Five. “Why didn’t you tell us this before, Klaus?”

“Would you have believed me if I had?”

“O—of c-c-c-c-course we w-w-would h-have!”

“Oh, really? Like you believed me when I said that it was Ben that saved your life?” Klaus asked, surprising everyone, including himself. Diego was speechless. “You wouldn’t have thought I was trying to be the center of attention again?” Klaus pressed.  
“Hey, those were Luther’s words. Not ours,” Five said quickly.

“You all seemed to agree with them, though.”

“K-K-Klaus…” Diego took a step closer to his brother.

Klaus shook his head. “No. Admit it you wouldn’t have believed me. And even if you had, you wouldn’t have cared.”

“Of c-c-course we w-would h-have c-c-c-ared! How c-can y-you say that?”

“Maybe because none of you noticed when I was kidnapped by Hazel and Cha-Cha? I’m not stupid, Diego! I know exactly how you and the others feel about me. I’m just your druggie brother that nobody gives a damn about.” 

Klaus got to his feet and brushed past his brothers. Diego and Five watched him go in stunned silence. For a moment, neither of them spoke. Diego took several deep breaths, trying to calm himself so that when he spoke he wouldn’t stammer any more. “I’m still going to kill Luther.”

Five sighed. “It wouldn’t help.”

“The hell, it won’t! Luther actually got Klaus killed, Five!”

“Yes, but Klaus is still with us, Diego.”

“Yeah, but he might not have been. Don’t you realize how close we came to losing him? I never thought I’d say this, but that scares me.”

“And it scares me too,” said Five. “Don’t forget, I buried all of you in the future. I don’t want to have to bury any of you ever again. And believe, I get your anger at Luther, but really Klaus is right. Now of us have done a good job of showing him that we care. That needs to change, Diego. Right now we need to focus on being there for him so stays clean. So that we don’t lose him. So that what happened at that rave never happens again.”

“It wouldn’t have happened in the first place if Luther hadn’t been thinking only of himself.”

“True, but we can’t change that now. What we can change is how we treat Klaus from now on. Come on. We need to find Klaus and show them that we’re there for him.”  
Diego nodded. Together the two brothers left the room, determined to make amends with Klaus, unaware of the other brother in the room who was watching them go with a smile on his face.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading. If you enjoyed it, please leave a comment!


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